Stephen King Biography

Stephen King (born September 21, 1947) is an American
author best known for his enormously popular horror novels. King
was the 2003 recipient of The National Book Foundation's Medal
for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Biography

Stephen's stories frequently involve an unremarkable
protagonist such as a middle-class family, a child, or many
times, a writer. The characters are involved in their everyday
lives, but the supernatural encounters and extraordinary
circumstances escalate over the course of the story. Steven
evinces a thorough knowledge of the horror genre, as shown in
his nonfiction book Danse Macabre, which chronicles several
decades of notable works in both literature and cinema. Stephen
King also writes stories outside the horror genre, including the
novellas The Body and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
(adapted as the movies Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption,
respectively), as well as The Green Mile and Hearts in Atlantis.
Stephen King also wrote under the pen name of Richard Bachman.

Stephen King was born in 1947 in Portland, Maine and is of
Scots-Irish ancestry. When King was two years old, his father
deserted his family. Stephen King's mother, Nellie Ruth
Pillsbury King, raised King and his adopted older brother David
by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. The family
moved to Ruth's home town of Durham, Maine but also spent brief
periods in Fort Wayne, Indiana and Stratford, Connecticut.
Steven attended Durham Elementary School and Lisbon High School.
He grew to stand 6'4" tall.

Stephen has been writing since an early age. When in school,
Stephen King wrote stories based on movies he had seen recently
and sold them to his friends. This was not popular among his
teachers, and he was forced to return his profits when this was
discovered. The stories were copied using a mimeo machine that
his brother David used to copy a newspaper, "Dave's Rag," which
he self-published. "Dave's Rag" was about local events, and King
would often contribute. At around the age of thirteen, Steven
discovered a box of his father's old books at his aunt's house,
mainly horror and science fiction. He was immediately hooked on
these genres.

From 1966 to 1971, Stephen studied English at the University of
Maine at Orono, Maine. At the university, Stephen King wrote a
column titled "King's Garbage Truck" in the student newspaper,
the Maine Campus. He also met Tabitha Spruce; they married in
1971. King took on odd jobs to pay for his studies, including
one at an industrial laundry. He used the experience to write
the short story The Mangler. The campus period in his life is
readily evident in the second part of Hearts in Atlantis.

After Stephen King finished his university studies with a
Bachelor of Arts in English and obtaining a certificate to teach
high school, King taught English at Hampden Academy in Hampden,
Maine. During this time, he and his family lived in a trailer.
He wrote short stories (most were published in men's magazines)
to help make ends meet. As told in the introduction in Carrie,
if one of Stephen King's kids got a cold, Tabitha would joke,
"Come on, Steve, think of a monster". Steven also developed a
drinking problem which stayed with him for over a decade.

During this period, Stephen began a number of novels. One of
Stephen King's first ideas was of a young girl with psychic
powers. However, Stephen King grew discouraged, and threw it
into the trash. Tabitha later rescued it and encouraged him to
finish it. After completing the novel, Steven titled it Carrie,
sent it to Doubleday, and more or less forgot about it. Later,
he received an offer to buy it with a $2,500 advance (not a
large advance for a novel, even at that time). Shortly after,
the value of Carrie was realized with the paperback rights being
sold for $400,000 (with $200,000 of it going to the publisher).
Shortly after its release, his mother died of uterine cancer.
Stephen King had the novel read to her before she died.

In On Writing, Stephen admits that at this time he was
consistently drunk and that he was an alcoholic for well over a
decade. He even admits that he was drunk during his mother’s
funeral while delivering the eulogy. Stephen King states that he
had based the alcoholic father in The Shining on himself, though
he did not admit it (even to himself) for several years.

Shortly after the publication of The Tommyknockers, King's
family and friends finally intervened, dumping his trash on the
rug in front of him to show him the evidence of his own
addictions: beer cans, cigarette butts, grams of cocaine, Xanax,
Valium, NyQuil, dextromethorphan (cough medicine), and
marijuana. Stephen King sought help and quit all forms of drugs
and alcohol in the late 1980s, and has remained sober.

Stephen lives in Bangor, Maine with his wife Tabitha King, who
is also a novelist. They also own a house in the Western Lakes
District of Maine. He spends winter seasons in an oceanfront
mansion located off the Gulf of Mexico in Sarasota, Florida.
Their three children, Naomi Rachel, Joe Hill (who appeared in
the film Creepshow), and Owen Phillip, are grown and living on
their own. Owen's first collection of stories, We're All in This
Together: A Novella and Stories was published in 2005. Joe
Hill's first collection of stories, 20th Century Ghosts was also
published in 2005 and has won the Crawford Award for best new
fantasy writer and the Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction
Collection.

In the summer of 1999, Stephen was in the middle of writing On
Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. At the time, he had finished the
memoir section and had abandoned the book for nearly eighteen
months, unsure of how to proceed or whether to bother. King
reports that it was the first book that he'd abandoned since
writing The Stand decades earlier. Stephen King had just decided
to continue the book. On June 17, Stephen King had written up a
list of questions that he was frequently asked about writing, as
well as some that he wished he would be asked about it; on June
18, he had written four pages of the section on writing.

On June 19, about 4:30 PM, Stephen King was walking on the right
shoulder of Route 5 in Center Lovell, Maine. Driver Bryan Smith,
distracted by an unrestrained Rottweiler, named Bullet, moving
in the back of his 1985 Dodge Caravan, struck King, who landed
in a depression about 14 feet (4 meters) from the pavement of
Route 5.

Oxford County Sheriff's deputy Matt Baker recorded that
witnesses said the driver was not speeding or reckless. Baker
also reported that King was struck from behind. King's official
website, however, states that this was incorrect, and that King
was walking facing traffic. In any case, Smith was turned and
leaning to the rear of his vehicle trying to restrain his dog,
and was not watching the road when he struck King.

Stephen was conscious enough to give the deputy phone numbers to
contact his family, but in considerable pain. The author was
first transported to Northern Cumberland Hospital and then flown
by helicopter to Central Maine Hospital. His injuries — a
collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of the right leg, scalp
laceration, and a broken hip — kept him in Central Maine Medical
Center until July 9, almost three weeks later.

Earlier that year Steven had finished most of From a Buick 8, a
novel where one of the characters dies in an automobile
accident. Of the eerie similarities, Stephen says that he tries
"not to make too much of it." Certainly car accidents and their
horrors had figured into King's work before. His 1987 novel
Misery also concerned a writer who experiences severe injuries
in an auto accident, and auto wrecks figure prominently in The
Dead Zone and Thinner.

After five operations in ten days and physical therapy, Stephen
resumed work on On Writing in July, though his hip was still
shattered and he could only sit for about forty minutes before
the pain became intolerable.

Steven's lawyer and two others purchased Smith's van for $1,500,
reportedly to avoid it appearing on eBay. Smith, a disabled
construction worker, died in his sleep on September 21, 2000
(King's birthday) at the age of 43.

Stephen incorporated his accident into the final novel of his
Dark Tower series, in which the hero Roland Deschain and his ka-tet
try to stop King from being fatally injured by the van. In the
story, Roland hypnotized both King and the driver in order to
make them forget his appearance.

The novel Dreamcatcher, which was released after Stephen's
accident, features a character recovering from a car accident.
The series premiere of King's Kingdom Hospital involved the main
character, a painter out for a morning run, being hit by a
pickup truck, and was also inspired by the accident. In fact the
scene was depicted remarkably similar to how he described his
real accident occurring, the only exception being that the
driver in the show was driving drunk in addition to trying to
restrain his dog.

In King's nonfiction book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,
Stephen discusses his writing style at great length and depth.
Stephen believes that, generally speaking, good stories cannot
be called consciously and should not be plotted out beforehand
but are better served by focusing on a single "seed" of a story
and letting the story grow itself from there. King often begins
a story with no idea how the story will end. He mentions in the
Dark Tower series that, halfway through its lengthy, nearly
30-year writing period, Steven King received a letter from a
woman with cancer who asked how the book would end¹, because she
was unlikely to live long enough to read it. Stephen King stated
that he didn't know. King believes strongly in this style,
stating that his best writing comes from freewriting.

Stephen King is known for his great eye for detail, for
continuity, and for inside references; many stories that may
seem unrelated are often linked by secondary characters,
fictional towns, or off-hand references to events in previous
books. Read as a whole, King's work (which he claims is centered
around his Dark Tower magnum opus) creates a remarkable history
that stretches from present day all the way back to the
beginning of time (with a unique creation myth).

Steven King's books are filled with references to American
history and American culture, particularly the darker, more
fearful side of these. These references are generally spun into
the stories of characters, often explaining their fears.
Recurrent references include crime, war (especially the Vietnam
War), and racism.

Stephen is also known for his folksy, informal narration, often
referring to his fans as "Constant Readers" or "friends and
neighbors." This familiar style contrasts with the horrific
content of many of his stories.

Stephen has a very simple formula for learning to write well:
"Read four hours a day and write four hours a day. If you cannot
find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good
writer."

Steven also has a simple definition for talent in writing: "If
you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you
cashed the check and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the
light bill with the money, I consider you talented" (from
"Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully — in Ten
Minutes").

Shortly after his accident, Stephen wrote the first draft of the
book Dreamcatcher with a notebook and a Waterman fountain pen,
"the world's finest word processor."

In 1996, Stephen won an O. Henry Award for his short story, "The
Man in the Black Suit." In 2003, King was honored with the
Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Book Awards. There
was an uproar in the literary community over the choice of King.

Stephen also wrote one short story, The Fifth Quarter, under the
name John Swithen. The Fifth Quarter, was reprinted in King's
collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes in 1993 under his own name.

Steven used to play guitar in the band Rock Bottom Remainders
but has not joined them on stage for some years. The band's
members include: Dave Barry; Ridley Pearson; Scott Turow; Amy
Tan; James McBride; Mitch Albom; Roy Blount Jr.; Matt Groening;
Kathi Kamen Goldmark; and Greg Iles.

In 2002, King announced he would stop writing, apparently
motivated in part by frustration with his injuries, which had
made sitting uncomfortable, and reduced his stamina. He has
since written several books.

"I'm writing but I'm writing at a much slower pace than
previously and I think that if I come up with something really,
really good, I would be perfectly willing to publish it because
that still feels like the final act of the creative process,
publishing it so people can read it and you can get feedback and
people can talk about it with each other and with you, the
writer, but the force of my invention has slowed down a lot over
the years and that's as it should be. I'm not a kid of 25
anymore and I'm not a young middle-aged man of 35 anymore — I'm
55 years old and I have grandchildren, two new puppies to
house-train and I have a lot of things to do besides writing and
that in and of itself is a wonderful thing but writing is still
a big, important part of my life and of everyday."[3]
Since 2003, Stephen has provided his take on pop culture in a
column appearing on the back page of Entertainment Weekly,
usually every third week. The column is called "The Pop Of
King", a reference to "The King of Pop", Michael Jackson.

In October 2005, Stephen has signed up with Marvel Comics; this
will be his first time writing original material for the comic
book medium other than two pages in a benefit comic for African
hunger relief in the 1980s. The 31 issue series will see him
adapting and expanding his The Dark Tower series. The series
will be illustrated by Eisner Award-winning artist Jae Lee.
Marvel recently announced the series was delayed until 2007 in
order for King to give it the attention it deserves.

In January 2006, Stephen appeared on the first installment of
"Amazon Fishbowl", a live web-program hosted by Bill Maher.

In January 2006, Stephen participated in the Writers in Paradise
program at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL.

On August 1 and August 2, 2006, Steven King will be doing a
reading for his charity at Radio City Music Hall alongside J.K.
Rowling and John Irving.

Stephen King, a long time supporter of small publishing press,
has recently allowed the publication of two past novels in
limited edition form. "The Green Mile," and "Colorado Kid" will
receive special treatment from two small publishing houses. Both
books will be produced and be signed by both Stephen and the
artist contributing work to the book. This is just the latest in
King's dance with limited editions, which 50% of his published
work has been re-published in limited (signed) edition format.

It is also reported on his website that he will be having book
signings in the New York City area and the West coast sometime
in October with the release of his new novel, Lisey's Story.

Stephen is a lifelong fan of the Boston Red Sox, and is
frequently found at both home and away baseball games.

In his private role as father, Stephen helped coach his son
Owen's Bangor West team to the Maine Little League Championship
in 1989. This experience is recounted in the New Yorker essay
Head Down, which also appears in the collection Nightmares and
Dreamscapes. Stephen has called Head Down his best piece of
nonfiction writing.

In 1999 King wrote The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which involved
former Red Sox team member Tom Gordon as a major character.
Stephen King recently co-wrote a book entitled Faithful: Two
Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season
with Stewart O'Nan. This work recounts the authors' roller
coaster reaction to the Red Sox's 2004 season, a season
culminating in the Sox winning the 2004 American League
Championship Series and World Series.

In 1992, Mansfield Stadium, a Little League ballpark (which also
host High School and Senior League games) opened in Bangor,
Maine. This facility, nicknamed the Field Of Screams, was made
possible through the efforts and donations of King and his wife
Tabitha.

In 2005, Steven King appeared in the movie Fever Pitch, which
was about an obsessive Boston Red Sox fan. In the film, King
tosses out the first pitch of the Sox's opening day game.

After publishing many wildly successful novels under his own
name, Stephen wanted to know if some of his early works (those
written before Carrie) would sell without having his name on
them. He also worried that many of the non-horror novels he
wanted to write would clash with the expectations of his fans.
So Stephen King convinced his publisher, Signet Books, to print
these novels under a pseudonym. The name "Richard Bachman" was
supposedly chosen partly in tribute to crime author Donald E.
Westlake's long-running pseudonym Richard Stark, and partly in
honour of Bachman Turner Overdrive, a band King was listening to
at the time he chose his pen name.

Stephen dedicated all of Bachman's early books to people close
to him and worked in obscure references to his own identity.
When fans picked up on these clues, not to mention the
similarity between the two authors' literary styles, horror
fans' and retailers' suspicions were aroused. Still, King
steadfastly denied any connection to Bachman, and to throw fans
off the trail Bachman's 1984 novel Thinner was dedicated to
"Claudia Inez Bachman", supposedly Bachman's wife. There was
also a phony author photo of Bachman on the dustjacket, credited
to Claudia.

Nevertheless, a persistent bookstore clerk couldn't believe that
Bachman and Stephen were not one and the same, and eventually
located publisher's records at the Library of Congress naming
King as the author of one of Bachman's novels. At that point,
the link became undeniable. This led to a press release
heralding Bachman's "death" -- supposedly from "cancer of the
pseudonym". At the time of the announcement in 1985, King was
working on Misery which he had planned to release as a Bachman
book.

The Bachman story didn't quite end with Thinner, though. In
1996, Bachman's The Regulators came out, with the publishers
claiming the book's manuscript was found among Bachman's
leftover papers by his widow. Still, it was obvious from the
book's packaging and marketing campaign that it was really
written by Stephen King. There was a picture of a young King on
the inside back cover, and the "also by this author" page listed
not only works Bachman was credited with writing, but also works
he wrote "as Stephen King". Furthermore, The Regulators was
released the same day as the King novel Desperation, and the two
novels featured many of the same characters. As well, the two
book covers were designed to be placed together to form a single
picture.

Around the time of The Regulators' release, Stephen said that
there may be another Bachman novel left to be "found". However,
no further updates on the state of Bachman's trunk of
unpublished works has been issued since that time.

Stephen has taken full ownership of the Bachman name on numerous
occasions, such as in the introduction to The Bachman Books:
Four Early Novels by Steven King. This introduction, entitled
"Why I Was Bachman", lays bare the whole Bachman/King story in
clear, undeniable detail.

Stephen also used the "relationship" between him and Bachman as
a concept in his book The Dark Half, a story in which a writer's
darker pseudonym takes on a life of its own. Steven dedicated
The Dark Half to "the deceased Richard Bachman".

Richard Bachman appeared in King's Dark Tower series, albeit
indirectly. In the fifth book, Wolves of the Calla, the sinister
children's book Charlie the Choo Choo is revealed to be written
by 'Claudia y Inez Bachman'. The spelling discrepancy of the
added 'y' was later explained as a deus ex machina on the part
of "The White" (a force of good throughout Steven King's Tower
series which works to assist the ka-tet of the gunslinger,
Roland) to bring the total total number of letters in her name
nineteen, a number prominent in King's series.

Quotes for Steven King

"People want to know why I do this, why I write such
gross stuff. I like to tell them that I have the heart of a
small boy ... and I keep it in a jar on my desk."

"Love, like justice, is blind"

Trivia for Steven King

Stephen King is a fan of the rock band AC/DC. They did
the soundtrack for his 1986 film Maximum Overdrive.

Many of his novels feature Plymouth Valiants or Dodge
Darts and their derivatives (Scamp, Duster, etc.). Christine
was about an earlier Chrysler car, a 1958 Plymouth Fury.

Steven King does not own a cell phone, a fact pointed
out on the dust jacket of Cell.

Stephen King will not sign photographs. He feels that is
something that should be reserved for movie stars.